China Frees Doctor Critical Of Policies

July 21, 2004|By Joseph Kahn The New York Times

BEIJING — Chinese military authorities have released the surgeon who exposed China's SARS cover-up and condemned the 1989 crackdown on democracy protesters, apparently bowing to the doctor's status as a local hero and to international pressure to free him, said people knowledgeable about his case.

The doctor, Jiang Yanyong, 72, returned home late Monday night after about 45 days in military custody, where he underwent political indoctrination sessions and was investigated for possible criminal activity, said one person who had been told about his case. He is not expected to be charged with a crime.

Jiang, who is a senior Communist Party member and who holds a rank that corresponds to lieutenant general or major general in the West, is expected to be kept under surveillance and to be prohibited from contacting outsiders.

Yet the decision to allow him to return home appears to amount to a rare victory for an individual who directly and repeatedly confronted China's Communist Party leaders. In a letter released in February, Jiang pressed state leaders to admit that the Tiananmen Square crackdown, perhaps the single most sensitive political vulnerability for China's current generation of leaders, was wrong.

While there is no evidence that senior officials are reconsidering their stance that the 1989 crackdown was justified, the decision to detain and then release Jiang suggests that leaders are conflicted when handling high-level dissent on the issue.

There was no official announcement of Jiang's detention on June 1, and the government has also said nothing publicly about his release. Jiang's wife and children could not be reached for comment.

But it seems likely that authorities will claim internally that Jiang showed remorse for his actions and, in Chinese party terminology, made progress in his political thinking under the instruction of military authorities.

Jiang became a well-known national and international figure last year. At that time he revealed in a letter to top leaders, which was also obtained by the international news media, that numerous Beijing hospitals, including the elite No. 301 Military Hospital, where he is a semi-retired senior surgeon, had far more SARS patients than health authorities had admitted at the time.

Shortly thereafter, Chinese leaders fired the minister of health and the mayor of Beijing, acknowledged having provided inaccurate information about the spread of SARS, and began a massive nationwide effort to combat the disease. Jiang was initially hailed as a hero even by state media.

Jiang told friends that as he approached his twilight years he intended to use his newfound celebrity for greater good. In February, it became clear that his target was the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.